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Thursday, July 12, 2012

Two and Counting: New Jersey to Consider Obamacare Nullification

On the heels of a recent announcement that Oklahoma State
Representative Mike Ritze would be introducing legislation to nullify
the Affordable Care Act, New Jersey Assemblywoman Alison Littell McHose
(R- Sussex) has verified with the Tenth Amendment Center that she has a
bill pending which would do the same.

Assembly Bill 861 (A861) would “Render the federal “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” null and void in New Jersey”

In a statement to the Tenth Amendment Center, McHose indicated that
trusting the federal courts to fix federal problems isn’t working. She
said, “Americans were always misguided to trust the good intentions of
the unelected Court. The Court being the failsafe of the establishment.”

A861 not only addresses the insurance mandate, the focus of most
health care freedom legislation and legal action. It takes the next step
and declares the entire act null and void within the state of New
Jersey. The bill itself provides the rational for nullification, based
on the Tenth Amendment. It includes the following:

“The assumption of power that the federal government has made by
enacting the ‘Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’ interferes
with the right of the people of the State of New Jersey to regulate
health care as they see fit, and makes a mockery of James Madison’s
assurance in Number 45 of the Federalist Papers that the “powers
delegated” to the federal government are ‘few and defined,’ while those
of the states are ‘numerous and indefinite.’”

The New Jersey Nullification Act also has teeth. It continues:

Any public officer or employee of this State who seeks to enforce
an act, order, law, statute, rule, or regulation of the United States
government in violation of this act shall be guilty of a disorderly
persons offense and, notwithstanding the provisions of N.J.S.2C:43-3 to
the contrary, for every such offense shall be fined not less than $500
nor more than $1,000, or be imprisoned for a term of not more than two
years, or both, in the discretion of the court.

The bill was introduced earlier this year, but it hadn’t yet gotten
much attention. Supporters believe that with the recent Supreme Court
ruling the bill could become a rallying point for those opposed to the
federal act and wanting to stop it at their state line.

In 2011, a similar bill met with fierce opposition. Opponents
predictably linked the principle of nullification to slavery. McHose
addressed the smear in an op-ed she wrote last July.

“My ancestors, one of whom died fighting for the Union in the
Civil War, would have approved of nullification when it was used to
combat the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850. This horrible federal law,
called the “bloodhound law” by opponents of slavery, allowed the capture
and return of escaped slaves even in states where slavery had been
abolished.”

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